13/01/2010
- The executive secretary of the Brazilian
Ministry of the Environment (MMA), Izabella
Teixeira, took part in the launching of
the International Year of Biodiversity,
on January 7, in Curitiba (PR). The ceremony
also ended the second Curitiba Meeting on
Cities and Biodiversity, which brought together
about 90 authorities and environmental technicians
from 16 countries. The meeting was a preparatory
event for the Conference of the Parties
(COP-10) that will be held in Nagoya (Japan),
in October.
The General Assembly
of the United Nations declared 2010 the
International Year of Biodiversity (IYB).
In the midst of global efforts to draw society's
attention to the value of biodiversity,
the ceremony will also happen in other cities.
Later this month, Berlin and Paris will
hold similar events, and the next meeting
of the United Nations General Assembly,
in September in New York, have biodiversity
as its theme.
According to Izabella,
throughout the year 2010, the Brazilian
Ministry of the Environment will promote
actions to encourage the conservation of
biodiversity, the sustainable use of its
components and the fair and equitable sharing
of benefits arising from the utilization
of genetic resources. The MMA's executive
secretary explained that Brazil has invested
considerable effort in the proposed adoption,
at COP-10, of a special international regime
for the sharing of benefits arising from
biodiversity.
She also highlighted
other efforts to reduce biodiversity loss,
such as reducing the rate of deforestation
in the Amazon and the extension of the monitoring
of deforestation for the Caatinga and the
Pampa biomes, and the announcement in 2010
of plans of action for the prevention and
control of deforestation in the Cerrado
and in the Pampa, similar to what is already
done in the Amazon.
The secretary
emphasized the importance of the concept
of biodiversity for the construction of
environmental citizenship and to promote
the expansion of cities in a sustainable
basis. "Entering the variable 'biodiversity'
in the masters plans for the cities, we
can create less vulnerable areas and prevent
tragedies such as the one that occurred
earlier this year in Angra dos Reis",
she said.
